Initial Steps by Bloomberg Show Contrast With Giuliani

By JENNIFER STEINHAUER

Published: November 10, 2001

In the 72 hours since he was elected to lead New York City, Michael R. Bloomberg has made numerous gestures -- both symbolic and substantive -- that appear to demonstrate he is not the man whose coattails he rode into office.

Yesterday, Mr. Bloomberg, who began his day meeting with former Mayor David N. Dinkins, announced that Nathan Leventhal, who was a top aide to former Mayor Edward I. Koch and who served as the transition chairman for Mr. Dinkins, would lead the next transition into City Hall.

After naming Mr. Leventhal, until recently the president of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, to that post, Mr. Bloomberg headed over to meet with the head of 1199/S.E.I.U., New York's Health and Human Service Union, perhaps the city's most powerful labor organization.

''We're very gratified he's coming,'' said Dennis Rivera, 1199's president, as he waited outside his office on West 43rd Street for Mr. Bloomberg yesterday. ''In eight years, Mayor Giuliani has never been here.''

At the headquarters, Mr. Bloomberg was met with an audience of cheering supporters that Mark Green could only have dreamed of during his failed bid for mayor. Mr. Rivera promised that his members would support Mr. Bloomberg, hinting that he expected that to be reciprocated. Mr. Bloomberg said, ''The people who help others are the people who God really blesses.''

Yesterday followed a whirlwind day of visits on Thursday, when Mr. Bloomberg dropped in on District Council 37, the city's largest municipal union, and Randi Weingarten, the president of the United Federation of Teachers. On Thursday night, Mr. Bloomberg also attended a dinner of 100 Black Men, a business organization, at which he shook hands with the Rev. Al Sharpton. And the morning after election night began with breakfast in the Bronx with Fernando Ferrer, who essentially ran his failed campaign for mayor by deriding Mr. Giuliani.

None of those people had supported Mr. Bloomberg's bid for mayor.

Mr. Bloomberg said yesterday that Mr. Leventhal, who he said would vet potential commissioners and deputy mayors, would bring the new administration up to speed on the state of the city's agencies and would brief him on all he has learned about city government in the past decades. He said he hoped that Mr. Leventhal would help him put together an administration as diverse as the population that elected him, ''to the extent I possibly can without quotas.''

He said that while he respected and would even like to keep some members of the Giuliani team, ''not all of his appointments were brilliant,'' and he added that he would ultimately sign off on every major appointment.

Whatever the ultimate composition of Mr. Bloomberg's administration, his selection of visits in the past couple of days hints that he will be a very different mayor, at least stylistically, from Mr. Giuliani. The current mayor did not meet with Mr. Sharpton, called Mr. Ferrer only on rare occasions and often had indifferent relationships with the unions. He tended to lean on people like Raymond Harding, leader of the Liberal Party, and his childhood friend, Peter Powers, for advice.

Mr. Bloomberg has yet to touch base with the city's traditionally conservative corners.

''I think it is clear that he will put in an administration that will be to the left of Giuliani,'' said Michael Long, chairman of the Conservative Party yesterday. ''I'm not happy about that.'' He added: ''The formula of success will be moving quietly to the center, like Mayor Giuliani did. In what I have seen him do so far, I would not say it's a victory for the Republican Party. The jury is still out on how he is going to govern; time will tell.''

And while Mr. Bloomberg's political leanings are no secret -- he called himself a liberal near the end of the campaign -- the hope among Giuliani aides and supporters is that he will continue the current mayor's policies.

Others point out that Mr. Giuliani was also surrounded by plenty of Democrats. ''When it gets down to policy, it's not who you talk to or who you meet with, it's the results,'' said one senior adviser to Mr. Giuliani.

Mr. Bloomberg said the last three mayors approved of his choice of Mr. Leventhal to run his transition. Mr. Giuliani said, ''I know Nat; he's a good friend.''

He added: ''I think that Nat brings a lot to it. He has a great deal of knowledge of city government.''

Mr. Leventhal was chief of staff to Mayor John V. Lindsay and deputy mayor for operations under Mr. Koch before leading Mr. Dinkins's transition team. He ran Lincoln Center from 1984 to 2000, and his political ambidexterity surfaced when Mayor Giuliani, whom he endorsed over Ruth W. Messinger in 1997, took on the Brooklyn Museum over its ''Sensation'' exhibition. At the time, Lincoln Center declined to sign a letter from the city's leading cultural institutions criticizing the mayor's moves.

Mr. Leventhal, 58, said he was asked to lead the transition over some snacks with the mayor-elect and Patricia E. Harris, Mr. Bloomberg's close aide, in Mr. Bloomberg's Upper East Side kitchen late Thursday night. He agreed to do the job free of charge, and added that he did not wish to stay on in the administration.

''I suppose initially one would have to question either the intelligence or the sanity of someone who, having done a mayoral transition, actually volunteers to do another one,'' Mr. Leventhal said. ''The reason I'm doing it is because of my belief in Mike,'' he said.

''I've seen him emerge as a superb leader, and I know his leadership will come at a critical time for New York,'' Mr. Leventhal said. He added that because Mr. Bloomberg did not defeat Mr. Giuliani, he expected a seamless and rancor-free transition. Mr. Bloomberg said yesterday that he expected to name the rest of his transition team over the next week, and that commissioner and deputy mayor appointments would follow.

Photo: Dennis Rivera, right, president of New York's Health and Human Service Union, welcoming Michael R. Bloomberg to union headquarters. (Andrea Mohin/The New York Times)(pg. D3)